At a Pentagon worship service on Wednesday, defense secretary Pete Hegseth recited an air rescue group’s prayer he said drew from the Bible’s Ezekiel 25:17. In reality, Hegseth delivered Samuel L. Jackson’s Bible-inspired monologue from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. The Pentagon later defended Hegseth’s “custom prayer.
Stephen Colbert called it out during The Late Show on Thursday night, showing Hegseth delivering said “custom prayer” beside the scenes from the 1994 film. The edit is really something. Watching the U.S. defense secretary essentially quoting Jackson’s Jules Winnfield, from a scene in which the hitman interrogates and executes a man after eating his Big Kahuna Burger, is kind of an out-of-body experience.
“Despite all this, I want Hegseth to succeed,” said Colbert. “He’s the Secretary of Defense. If he succeeds, that means America succeeds. So please join me in prayer. God, I’m talking to you. You talking to me? Are you talking to me? War is like a box of chocolates. I’m tired of these MFing sins on my MFing soul.”
